About

A Book to Love is a spot designed to give book recommendations, discover new authors, and explore all things literary. My name is Alex Kiester. By day, I’m a writer and by night, I explore new worlds.

With a degree in Creative Writing from Rhodes College, I began my literary career as a copy editor for the Journal of the Texas House of Representatives where I quickly realized that work wasn’t creative enough for me. From there I became a book editor at a boutique romance novel publishing house. The biggest issue I ever faced was There is not enough sexual tension! As dumb as it was to quit that sweet gig, I eventually did and have been writing ever since.

My third book, In Her Skin, won the 2016 Writer’s League of Texas manuscript contest in the mystery genre and my second book, What You Know Will Kill You, placed as a finalist in 2014. My first book, a romance titled Autumn in New York never left my computer (thank goodness). And my first first book, something about a haunted house, which I wrote around the age of eight, was scribed in pencil.

As a writer, I justify reading as “research” and start every day with a book and a cup of coffee and end every night with a book and a very hot bath. Due to this grueling work schedule, I typically read about four books a month, start almost twice that, and post only my favorites on A Book to Love. This is A Book to Love after all, not loathe or even like.

Always on the prowl for a fabulous new book, I’ve waded through sometimes-good algorithm-produced suggestions and Top 50 book lists that recommend I read “To Kill A Mockingbird” for the third time. Don’t get me wrong: I’m as much a fan of Atticus Finch as the next girl, but I want to discover fresh, new titles. Finding good books takes time, energy, and research. A Book to Love does that for you.

I review commercial and literary fiction, mysteries, women’s fiction, and motivational nonfiction with the odd miscellaneous thrown in. So if you’re in the market for, say, a memoir set during the Vietnam war, you’re probably out of luck. But I hope you stick around and discover something else to love!

And when you’re done with that book you fell head over heels for, come chat about it with likeminded readers in the comments section because sometimes you just have to talk about it. Even if it’s just to say She did what to who? How could she?